C’est clair qu’en termes de logistique, quand il y a autant d’éléments, ça dépasse très largement le cadre de la seule traduction. La mise en page demande aussi du temps, et la relecture/vérification, je n’en parle même pas. Elle se compte forcément en semaines, voire en mois (pas étonnant que certains préfèrent faire l’impasse dessus ou faire ça en diagonale, après…) 
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Bonjour,
Étant très intéressé par ce jeu, j’ai sui vi avec intérêt les articles partagés dans cette conversation.
Comme vous parliez pas mal d’ATO, je suis allez regarder la page KS. ça me laisse l’impression qu’ils refont le même jeu mais en changeant l’antiquité par le moyen age. Aussi, ATO est leur seul jeu mais si j’ai bien compris, personne n’y a encore joué (?). J’ai tout bon ? parce que si c’est le cas, ça me refroidi un peu. Depuis Orcquest, je suis moyen chaud à soutenir d’aussi gros projets
Au pire je pense que le plus raisonnable reste de mettre 1$ pendant le KS, d’attendre qu’ils livrent ATO et selon les retours de compléter ou non le PM. Ca permet de limiter les mauvaises surprises, dans l’hypothèse où le PM reste ouvert suffisamment longtemps.
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Le nouvel article pour le week-end Halloween ! Et là on en prend toujours plein les yeux… J’adore cet univers hybride d’un Kingdom Death qui aurait été revisité par Tim Burton.
The Kingdoms of KF!
Of Dragons, Devils and Kings…
A truly tactical dungeon crawler.
A truly co-operative adventure.
A truly narrative-driven board game.
Truly epic!Kingdoms Forlorn is a solo-operative dungeon delver for 1-4 players with a focus on loot, tactical battles, character building and storytelling. It’s something we’ve been working for more than 2 years now, since before our highly successful Kickstarter campaign for Aeon Trespass: Odyssey. As AT:O nears completion, we thought it high time to reintroduce Kingdoms Forlorn to the wider audience!
In the coming months, I’ll be slowly unveiling the magnificent beast that is Kingdoms Forlorn, and showcasing each and every major theme and concept, as well as highlighting the innovative mechanics we hope will reinvent the somewhat stale genre of ‘dungeon crawler board games’. And of course, along the way, I’ll give you a sneak peek at the exquisite art we’re using to illustrate it: from Monsters, Knights and Kingdoms to Gear, Maps, Saints, UI elements and the next generation of our miniatures!
Kara, the Wilder
“Don’t be jealous, Rein! There’s plenty to go around!” Kara calls out with a chuckle as she hefts a boar, a prized prey, from one shoulder to another for all the village to see.
“Hold onto this, little one,“ she adds, putting her helmet on an unsuspecting boy’s head, “And don’t you think of playing with it. It’s serious Wilder business.”
She winks. She remembers when she was his age.
Barely able to wield a sword, she lived high in the branches, in the headman’s hut, pretending to be his long-lost daughter. During hot summer nights, she used to lounge on the terrace overlooking the village green and gaze into the stars, imagining all the great deeds and fabulous adventures that awaited her in the future. She would recount to the headman, whom she called Uncle Kan, all the things that happened to her over the course of the day, from catching a beetle to seeing a white-antlered deer to meeting a First Man. And then she would look into his unseeing eyes and find encouragement and warmth. Uncle Kan would always be there, lending a sympathetic ear and all the comfort Kara craved.
And why wouldn’t he be? He was a stone statue, just like the rest of the village’s inhabitants. There were drawbacks to living in a petrified settlement.
“Nothing’s perfect, right?” Kara laughs to herself.
The Dark, Twisted World of Kingdoms Forlorn
Once the known world was ruled by the Grand Kingdoms. Alas its Kings failed to listen to the Good Church and follow its Commandments and when the Pope warned about the coming cataclysm and devilry, his words fell on deaf ears.
And then the curses came and with them the Deep Fog and soon the Grand Kingdoms became inaccessible, forsaken and then forgotten, a giant white spot on the world map. Years passed, the Border Duchies, no longer curtailed by their powerful neighbours, came into their own. Noble lines flourished, knight orders were established, the Church arose anew.
And then the Fog began to disperse…
Rake Devil
Telling engrossing narratives and creating strange new worlds is ITU’s mission statement, so no one should be surprised by the level of detail and depth of the stories found within and around Kingdoms Forlorn.
We talked a bit about the types of stories you’ll experience: small, incidental encounters specific to each Kingdom and region, long personal journeys tied to particular Knights, and global narratives that delve (hint, hint) into the history, mythology and secrets of the eponymous lands.
What we haven’t talked that much about is the setting and the tone.
Kingdoms Forlorn is a fully realized world that will exist well beyond the scope of your games. It’s a dark fantasy (though not grimdark!) that positions you as powerful, brave, desperate, errant and sometimes quite mad Knights that venture into the forsaken lands for treasure, glory, vengeance, closure, thrill, eldritch quarries and for much more esoteric reasons.
The setting is steeped in medieval lore, of Europe and beyond, with all the woes and eccentricities that entails. I did stress it’s a dark fantasy, leaving out the grim part, as I find that a world completely devoid of beauty and hope is… a very low stakes one!
Flower Knight
We take a different approach, and paint a setting that is more believable in its diversity of moods and tones, and colors, with countries that do not always hang precariously on the verge of collapse. There is life in the border kingdoms, there is strife, but also progress. And all that’s because… once you enter the titular Kingdoms Forlorn, it will be that much more gutting to see the rampant death and decay, and villainy.
There is an anxious air to the setting, to everything your Knights do, a hard to put a hand on feeling that something is coming. Something incomprehensible and terrible. Something that cannot be stopped. As you delve (hint, hint) deeper into the story of your Knight, past the outer shell of appearances, you begin to understand the underlying loss, fear, despair, desperation and madness that drive them.
The setting, too, tries to dive into a subset of darker, sadder emotions that are rarely explored: melancholy, a sense of passing, a sense of a low-key coming dread, helplessness and many more.
We believe that with our approach to storytelling, worldbuilding and pacing, the kingdoms, curses and stories we’re preparing for you will shake you to the core.
Flower Castle
The Barony of Bountiful Harvest
The Barony was once called the Granary of the Known World, and rightly so, for its lands were rich in fertile chernozem soils and produced crops all year long. And not just grains, but vegetables, mushrooms and spices too. The Barony sustained many of its neighbours with food exports, while its many exotic tastes drew people from all corners of the Grand Kingdoms. Yet there was also a more sinister side to all this, as poisonous plants grew here in abundance too, and many an opponent of the Barony ended up dead under suspicious circumstances.
The Barony’s nobility thus grew powerful, their might built on a robust trading empire and a web of treacherous plots. Their knights commanded much fear, due to them favouring poisonous blades, while their levy armies were well trained and better fed. The kingdom’s ruler had the ear of the Conclave of Kings, and the Church as their stalwart ally. All was well.
But the King coveted more, just like his rival from Firanzance he dreamed of an even grander throne, that of the Emperor.
King in Bloom
The Curse of Bloom came inconspicuously and in the first years it was even seen as a boon: everything grew greener, larger, riper. Once people became sick it was far too late. Everyone was tainted. Their bodies started to sprout flowers and they died in agony. Fertilizing the earth and realizing the Accursed Pollen.
In a year, the Barony was overgrown and deserted, the curse poised to spread even further. To stop its death march, a stretch of land was cleared and burned and the fires were kept burning bright and high. A volunteer guard order was formed, the Firestarters of St. Ignatz, to patrol the border and stoke the Great Fire Wall.
And then the Deep Fog came and the Grand Kingdoms were forlorn.
Now the fog rises and the Great Fire Wall is doused.
As adventurers, knights, knaves and wanderers venture into the Barony of Bountiful Harvest, looking for the lost treasures of its once mighty nobility, they find that the Kingdom is far from abandoned. There is a new King, a new nobility and a new knighthood.
Terrifying flower men and mushroom beasts infest it, vicious and malevolent, yet possessing a cunning intellect. The only thing stopping them from pouring over the Border Kingdoms is internal strife and courtly intrigue, as it seems these creature inherited more than just the Barony’s land: their treacherous nature.
Yet the most terrifying question still remains: are these monsters that succeeded humans, or did human turn into these monsters…
Pumpkinhead
Spooky Halloween from the entire ITU team!
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C’est toujours aussi beau
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C’est beau, sauf King in Bloom 
Pas d’accord, y’a un côté Arcimboldo trash qui me plaît bien…
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J’aime beaucoup tout ce qui est montré.
Par contre Kara the Wilder je sais pas ce qu’elle regarde mais c’est un cou à se péter le dos et la nuque. 
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J’aime bien les illustrations, mais je n’ai pas suivi de quel type de jeu il s’agissait. C’est du DC ?
La DA claque fort. Ca tranche pas mal avec ce qui est souvent proposé.
C’est surtout le gameplay qui va me convaincre car l’esthétisme m’a déjà happé
Ces dragons 
Par contre le Flower Knight me fait très fort penser à un autre FlowerKnight… Tout comme le plateau d’affrontement qui reprend le concept de KDM pour moi.
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Voilà la nouvelle update pre-campagne plus courte que d’habitude…
Stories and Monkeys
The long-abandoned marketplace is hauntingly still, dozens of crumbling buildings looming over it with darkened, empty facades like ghostly faces. Wind whistles through the empty homes that once boasted life and activity, a soulful dirge to the lost. Most disturbing of all, however, are the figures that infest the square. Statues of countless different kinds, from merchants to washerwomen to little children, all frozen in a moment of time. The petrification spared none of them.
You pause to take a closer look at one, and a sudden scraping sound behind you catches your ear. Figures emerge from the abandoned buildings, hunched, twisted, clawing at the ground with long talons. Perhaps they were once Human, but now it is impossible to tell. Stony growths cover what flesh is visible. They encircle you, making ready to attack.
Fields of Stone
Deep Hand-crafted Stories with Roguelike Elements
Kingdoms Forlorn is many things. One of those thing is the narrative, or, rather, narratives, plural, as each Knight will weave their own tale of valor, courage, revenge, redemption, despair, fall, discovery or rebirth. These stories are tailor-made for particular Knights and encompass sprawling choice trees and branching narratives. A lot of these are mutually exclusive and will lead you to diverse outcomes, character builds and, ultimately, endings.
These branching narratives are not exactly choose your own adventures either! Over the years, we’ve been steadily pushing the limits of what stories our games can tell through mechanics and mechanically-driven choices, and Kingdoms Forlorn is the next step in that direction. What I mean by this is: rarely will you find yourself at a straight, clean choice, like, “save those people or single-mindedly follow your nemesis”. These are interesting, but, ultimately, very static choices. “Save those people and lose a hand or single-mindedly follow your nemesis and lose access to a whole in-game faction” is a better proposition, as it adds additional stakes. However, it still boils down to a single ‘crossroads’; you may have played a reckless Knight who doesn’t care about anyone but themselves, and yet now you can ‘make the right choice’. No. A lot of the times, you’ll have to sleep in the bed you’ve made: Kingdoms Forlorn will track important statistics, ability use and other factors, and will sometimes arrive at the conclusion of who you really are before you do. How many people have you left to their fate in the last delve? That many? Well, then clearly you’re driven by revenge! What kind of clues have you collected the most? What kind of tactics were you using? How did your other interactions fare? All these and more will dictate or influence the number of choices each fork in the road presents.
Stoneface
And, of course, you will be allowed to fail. What I mean by this is that the game’s story will rarely stop for you when you stumble. Have you failed to save your informant? Tough luck, he will take their secret to their grave, while you will be forced onto a different story path. “Fail forward” they’re calling it, though I’m not that fond of the term myself. You see, fail forward suggests the game will progress in the same or similar way, regardless of your success. In Kingdoms Forlorn that’s not true at all. There are easier and darker paths, there are good and bad endings, there are things that make your game more challenging or easier – at a cost, of course.
Then there are the ‘rogue-like elements’. I do not mean rogue-like in a sense that your progression will be in any way reset. Rather, it’s about more or less random story encounters that will influence your main stories. Chance meetings, fateful duels, dreadful discoveries, all these will open up new interesting avenues or tip the scales in favor of one path or another.
Finally, the Knight stories do intersect – in interesting, non-obvious, sometimes shocking ways. As the saying goes: you can’t rob the same tomb twice – or at least walk out of the second attempt alive!
On the Poor Knight’s Road, utter carnage awaits you. Maimed bodies are rotting where they had been thrown. Shards of broken weapons and pieces of armor have been scattered across the highway like autumn leaves. The carriage is lying on its side, wood split open like a rotten pumpkin. Torn cushions and curtains are the only things left inside.
“No bandit did this,” you surmise. “We’re in for a treat, my nimble friend, maybe there is some enjoyment to be had here after all!”
Little Ser chirps in agreement.
Knighteater
Who put a monkey in there?
Yes, there are monkeys in Kingdoms Forlorn! The worlds we create tend to have some eccentricities to them, though each is always well-thought out and a great springboard for creativity. We find that these type of unique elements are what differentiates the greatest fantasy and science fiction settings, those small details that add up to a somewhat familiar, yet quite unknown new world.
So there are monkeys in Kingdoms Forlorn – as well as apes! These are called the First Men, and are thought to have been civilized, once. Now they roar the edges of the Deep Fog (and the Sunken Kingdom), hostile to humans, but not overly aggressive. Some scholars believe they are the subjects of a separate Curse, that these were in fact humans, bondsmen of one of Forlorn Kings. But this is surely false, for each King, and Kingdom, and each Curse are accounted for, so where did these First Men come from?
Firstman
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Je rajouterais qu’ils auront de gros protos et peut-être un mod TTS …
The time has come. The Deep Fog lifts, revealing that Kingdoms Forlorn will launch in February 2022! Just like with Aeon Trespass: Odyssey, we’ll have professionally produced demo copies (a demo the size of other games…) and we hope to have a TTS demo mod ready too.
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Je vais avoir bien envie de le prendre mais c’est sur qu’ils ont aussi énormément de contenu à livrer.
On verra aussi les eb, si c’est pas très intéressant je mettrais peut être 1$ (ce que je fais rarement pour ce genre de projet).
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En tout cas la da m’attire bien plus que aron trespass. Mais bon, faut avouer que va falloir être motivé pour le pledge celui là, et très patient…
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Patient, ça dépend puisqu’on aura Aeon Trespass pour patienter entre temps
Ça fait follement envie mais bon… Vu les mastodontes précédent…
La date de lancement se précise (15 février ?) et début de semaine pro une page de preview devrait être dispo
We’re lauching mid-February 2022 and we’ll have the preview page up next week, possibly as soon as Monday!
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